timing is everything...

An afternoon visit to Meijer Gardens prooved profitable for us today. Thanks to the kids, who cannot leave without saying goodbye to the turtles in the basement...we headed downstairs and past the dahlia (type o' flower) show. After greeting all the turtles for awhile, Lauren got curious about all the huge flowers so we meandered into a room to check them out.

Well, it happened to be about closing time and a lady grabbed Jeff and told him to start choosing the ones we wanted because at the stroke of 5pm, whoever is there can grab as many as they can and take 'em home.

Well, I've learned you don't turn down free...so I started taking cues from the grabby paws around me and guarded some big ones. Meanwhile, Lauren got into the spirit of things and stuck very close to a dahlia the size, shape, and color of a golf ball...she didn't want anyone else to have her golf ball flower. If dahlia's have feelings...that one was feeling pretty good. Sarah got into the spirit of it and put her arms around three purple ones.

Finally, the guy said "Go!" and, while I expected elbows to fly and ladies to push each other to the ground over these flowers, it was a rather calm plucking of beautiful freebies...but they were gone by 5:03. I felt a little bad about my haul (not to mention what else the girls grabbed)...but when it comes to free stuff and being Dutch...you really have very little choice. Well, after that very lengthy tale...enjoy the rest of the photos.